ne of my old roommates worked for a startup in the tiny town where I live. He was an excellent roommate because he was at work all the time. His breakneck schedule involved staying up most of the night fixing bugs, so he was rarely awake when I was getting ready in the morning.

It appears that working for a startup can be difficult, and as nice as that might be for the roommates, it’s not always as relaxing for the employees and founders. So why not make it easier by researching how to level up ahead of time? Going global can involve many things you may not have considered before… that’s the whole reason this magazine exists.

This issue on localization for startups focuses on basics as well as the more techy side of things, offering a broad view of how to localize. Clientside localizers from Tinder, Teradata and Lyft weigh in, and we have third-party perspectives from CSA and Localization Flow Technologies. Writers from language service providers large and small also offer their take. Our Client Talk column even focuses on a Danish startup to see if localization is on their radar.

Because big or small, if you’re starting a company that may one day go global — or is in the process now — you can learn a lot from the experts.

This NewPage paper has been chain-of-custody certified by three independent third-party certification systems.

MultiLingual is printed on 30% post-consumer recycled paper.

Erik Vogt | VP Partnerships and Custom Solutions

Creative solutions are critical to global expansion.

To succeed in competitive international markets, understanding who you’re trying to reach and why is just as important as how you reach your goals. But traditional localization services aren’t equipped to deliver this.

Today’s services and technologies must evolve and expand to tackle your most complex globalization challenges.

My mission is to design creative and innovative solutions to help your ambitious brand dominate in global markets.

To succeed in competitive international markets, understanding who you’re trying to reach and why is just as important as how you reach your goals. But traditional localization services aren’t equipped to deliver this.

Today’s services and technologies must evolve and expand to tackle your most complex globalization challenges.

My mission is to design creative and innovative solutions to help your ambitious brand dominate in global markets.

The many sister cities of San Francisco on a signpost at the Post Street Cable Car Station on Market Street, alluding to the far-flung cultures and locations that this city of startups reaches.

Vendors & Organizations has a new look

The language industry at your fingertips

[ 2,100+ companies

[ 48 categories

[ easy to search

[ new & improved

[ updated year-round

The Vendors & Organizations (V&O)section on multilingual.com has been updated to improve searchability and user experience. V&O has served as the go-to place to find language tools and services since 1999.

The 40th Translating and the Computer, held in London November 15-16, 2018, was rated highly by the 100-plus attendees from 18 countries and three continents. In attendance were technologists, translators, language experts from international organizations, academics and again this year, interpreters.

Thursday kicked off with keynote Arle Lommel asking “Where’s my translation Jet Pack?” He was followed by Tracey Hay from WIPO; Denis Dechandon on EuroVoc and IATE; and Christine Bruckner completing the morning discussing information security. Alongside this, David Benotmane held a language quality assurance workshop, and Michael Farrell demonstrated a new machine translation (MT) output assessment tool. After lunch, Alan Melby reviewed quality standardization, Terence Lewis looked at crucial aspects of terminology for neural machine translation (NMT) and Joanna Gough and Katerina Perdikaki discussed concurrent translation. Parallel workshops for interpreters covered post-editing statistical MT and NMT, and quality assurance checking in Studio. The day concluded with Joanna Drugan leading a round table on “The future role of the professional translator” and two sponsor workshops on the XTM Connect Series and Televic’s TranslationQ tool.

Friday started with Anja Rütten examining interpreter booth notes, and featured an insightful keynote by Panayota (Yota) Georgakopoulou on the “Art of Translation.” A round table on technologies for interpreters led by Gloria Corpas Pastor followed, with hot competition from a packed workshop by Jerzy Czopik on REGEX and then Alan Melby on Implementing TBX 3. After lunch, there were talks on everything from localization architecture to literary translation.

Recaps

Elia looks at project management, networking and more

The European Language Industry Association (Elia) is a European not-for-profit trade association of language service companies with a mission to accelerate our members’ business success. It held three events in the latter portion of 2018 focusing on various aspects of the language industry.

Project management

The third edition of Elia’s conference on project management took place September 13-14, 2018, in Porto, Portugal, hosting nearly 100 project and production managers from all over Europe and beyond.

The project management conference follows a two-day format combining theory and practice. The first day starts with presentations on three key topics by expert speakers and a keynote address, and on the second day attendees are divided into groups to consolidate new perspectives through thought-provoking workshops on each topic. This program is complemented by a preconference on technology, which takes place the afternoon before the conference starts, where attendees enjoy previews of the latest tools and hands-on advanced training.

The eighth edition of the Nordic Translation Industry Forum (NTIF) was held in Oslo, Norway, November 21-23, 2018, and gathered 146 participants.

Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) are becoming more and more attractive to different entrepreneurs, businesses and innovators. Compared to other conferences, NTIF was full of surprises. If you’ve never set foot in a Nordic country, you likely wouldn’t anticipate being surrounded by such friendly people. Also, as diversity is one of the core values of Scandinavian societies, people tend to be independent and think critically, which means they communicate and discuss ideas in an open and constructive way.

Anne-Marie Colliander Lind and Cecilia Enbäck are the brains behind the forum, but their heart and soul make it special from the jovial welcome reception to the closing raffle.

Diane McAveeney, Ben Sargent and José Fernández have announced the launch of Group Q, a digital, language and technology agency. The company’s initial focus will be on brand storytelling, video script adaptation and native copywriting, and then expand to include full-service localization and AI-based translation.

AppTek, a speech recognition company, has been awarded a patent by the United States Patent Office for its automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology that enables higher precision and recall of keywords in spoken content by using a textual keyword list.

Katie Botkin is a freelance writer and the managing editor of MultiLingual. She has a master’s degree in English with an emphasis on linguistics and has taught English on three continents.

T

he world contains around 6,000 living languages, but you only need 20 to reach roughly half of the world in their native language. Gaston Dorren writes about those 20 in his latest book, Babel.

Chapters are written in a variety of styles — The one on Persian is a Q&A; Vietnamese is a first-person essay. The chapter on Arabic offers eight pages of dictionary entries that correspond closely with English words, in an effort to bridge the foreignness of the language. Each chapter style pulls out the intricacies of the different tongues, creating vivid snapshots of what makes each language unique — sometimes culturally, sometimes linguistically, often historically. Even devoted linguists are bound to pick up tidbits they were previously unfamiliar with, and the book is an easy read, written to be digestible for the layperson.

he world contains around 6,000 living languages, but you only need 20 to reach roughly half of the world in their native language. Gaston Dorren writes about those 20 in his latest book, Babel.

Chapters are written in a variety of styles — The one on Persian is a Q&A; Vietnamese is a first-person essay. The chapter on Arabic offers eight pages of dictionary entries that correspond closely with English words, in an effort to bridge the foreignness of the language. Each chapter style pulls out the intricacies of the different tongues, creating vivid snapshots of what makes each language unique — sometimes culturally, sometimes linguistically, often historically. Even devoted linguists are bound to pick up tidbits they were previously unfamiliar with, and the book is an easy read, written to be digestible for the layperson.

Terena Bell is an independent journalist writing for The Atlantic, Washington Post, Fast Company and others. She is former CEO of In Every Language and was on the GALA and ALC boards.

Danish startup Tiimo hasn’t bought professional translation — yet. And that’s a big yet, according to growth and business development manager Thomas Nymark. The company is also open to exploring translation management software as it grows, making Tiimo the first client we’ve profiled falling right at the prepurchase inflection point.

Welcome to Client Talk, where we chat with a different language buyer in every issue. When do they say professional translation is worth it, and why? By chatting away from the sales environment, we hope to uncover truths about how clients see the language industry.

Jeannette Stewart is the former CEO of CommuniCare, a translation company for life sciences. An advocate for the language industry, she founded Translation Commons, a nonprofit online platform facilitating community collaboration.

There’s a joke told by recruiters about questioning a job candidate’s vague claim to have gone to Harvard only to be told, “Yeah, I went to visit my friend.” Another quip concerns a panicky aircrew member running down the aisle asking if there’s a doctor on board and eliciting the response, “I have a PhD in linguistics!”

The point is less the humor than to ensure propriety. When we’re dealing with a professional matter, such as checking up on a qualified practitioner who is paid for their services, we want to know that we’re not hiring a cowboy. This applies just as much to plumbers as it does to brain surgeons. It’s often infeasible to check firsthand that the guy suited up in the scrubs or the guy wielding the plunger is up to the task, so we rely instead on qualifications, often codified in the form of degrees and certificates. Their degrees hang on their office walls. Craftsmen may display their license numbers on all their business stationery and even on their trucks! They are issued by a governing body that manages its members’ credentials, ranging from renewals to discipline when standards have not been met.

Laura Di Tullio is a terminology management consultant who has developed termbases and managed enterprise terminology for large multinationals. She has been in the localization industry for over 20 years, holds an MA in terminology management and a degree in translation studies.

While preparing for his own small business startup adventure, a friend described how pleased he was with all the help he got from different US organizations that would probably not have been available in his country. From the local chapters of Score to the Small Business Development Centers, an army of former managers, practitioners and experts introduced him to an equally important number of business puzzle pieces: strategic business planning, marketing planning, business mentoring, legal advising, accounting, payroll and the like.

My friend’s startup was going to be a traditional LLC in logistics. Even though evolving fast, the logistics domain still answers to the classical rules of business prospected by Score: it starts locally and then grows. It can also, probably, be confined within the borders of a single country or nation. What my friend could not find as much in the otherwise encompassing view of Score was the international grasp, the point of view that would be, on the contrary, essential from the get-go in a localization and translation business.

For this reason, the entry I am adding today to our ideal termbase is internationalization, a term that is often abbreviated as i18n, where 18 is the number of letters between i and n in the English word. Of interest from a terminological and linguistic perspective is the use of a numeronym, an abbreviation formed using a number. Typical examples of numeronyms are those words where the letters and number sound like the corresponding full form, as in K9 for canine, or the French K7 (ka sept) for cassette. Other cases in which numbers are used instead of words could be using the term 911 instead of the word emergency, or the 101 utilized to express the concept of basic overview of a topic.

Nowadays, consumers trust credible content far more than advertising. But how can you achieve content precision and consistency across all channels and touchpoints in the customer experience? A solidly managed terminology is the first basis! At the same time, it increases the clarity and findability of your brand. Here´s a step-by-step guide on how to set up a corporate terminology process that benefits the bottom line:

1. Set up a transparent, collaborative, systematic and measured process

Transparent

Reaching a common terminology requires clearly defined corporate language processes. Wikis or word lists in MS Excel either lack manageability or quality or both. Only a managed and transparent process provides a framework to develop, discuss, vote, approve, and update terminology. Users will agree with and actually use “their” terminology more often if their group or division is really involved in the process of defining it and keeping it current.

Collaborative

Increase user involvement and buy-in by making the process collaborative! A collaborative process will:

◆ motivate colleagues to really use terminology and contribute to the data

◆ enable subject matter experts to work together in virtual workgroups on the terminology content and metadata

◆ actively involve country subsidiaries, external or internal partners, and translators in making the terminology data multilingual

◆ include decision-makers to sign off terminology by simple voting tools

Systematic

Manage requests and tasks in a systematic workflow. The earlier in the “concept genesis” the workflow starts, the better. This avoids having to weed out “working titles” once they are established in the minds of engineers, product teams or quality managers. Make sure that the colleagues who first come up with a new concept have an easy way to send this into a validation process.

Secondly, make sure the right people are assigned the right tasks. For example, a request filed by a user has to go to the owner of that particular kind of content or group. This role acts as a central moderator between all the stakeholders in the “term creation” process, channeling the task to the right contributors and specialists. (Yes, we intentionally avoided the term “terminologist” here.)

And finally, make sure the buy-in is interdisciplinary. The majority of terminology issues arise because different stakeholder groups live in a different terminological reality. Inconsistencies and misunderstandings are not created intentionally, they happen because different people have different backgrounds and did not double-check with others.

Typically, the terminology process consists of three main phases, which can run in parallel in different languages, of course:

◆ A request or input phase identifying the need for something new or a change

◆ A validation or edit phase in which the process owner determines if the request will lead to a new concept or change, and gathers subject matter input on all levels of detail

◆ A voting or approval phase making sure that the new entry is correct in all involved divisions or choosing the best option of several competing versions

Measured

Make sure you have key performance indicators and reporting set up around the process, so you can identify room for improvement. Also, a consistent change tracking allows you to monitor and even roll back developments, but also to keep stakeholders informed about what has changed in the termbase. Some ideas for KPIs:

◆ time spent on typical tasks -> resource issues

◆ percentage of requests leading to approvals or rejections per group -> training issues

◆ entries most often found or not found -> priority issues

And remember: Terminology is never “done.”

2. Make it simple, meaningful and useful

Simple

To reach a “critical mass” user base, pick a terminology management solution that allows the terminology team to easily roll out the data in a personalized way: Just the way the various target audiences need it. Search has to be fast and easy and return the desired results with features like auto-complete, linguistic search, fuzziness and so on. The UI has to match the corporate design to make it look part of “normal business”.

To engage users even more, modern systems offer tree-structures like taxonomies to navigate the termbase by topics. Even more advanced systems offer concept maps or other “network” navigations to allow users to drill down, discover and get truly intrigued. Enabling feedback or just “liking” entries turn passive users into active contributors.

Meaningful

True masters of terminology have discovered tools like the “Term of the week” or even “Term Quizzes” to push terminology to even larger audiences. They allow terminologists to demonstrate the purpose and benefits of terminology in a fun and more easily accepted manner. These edutainment or gamified approaches to learning bring the “antiquated” touch of terminology to our modern times.

Useful

A managed terminology, of course, is only helpful if it is actually used. For this, tools that offer a quick lookup, guidance through auto-suggestions, or better still, automated terminology verification of texts in many different work environments can make a huge difference. This can be anything from authoring plugins into content creation editors to verification of terminology in typical engineering environments. For the more frequent use cases of power authoring, standard tools are available. More intricate use cases such as embedding terminology into engineering, production or ERP processes may require customized integrations.

Remember: Constant self-marketing leads to awareness. Combine this with personalized ease of use to achieve a truly accepted terminology process.

3. Prove and improve terminology ROI

Naturally, terminology has to prove a return on investment. The “quality” aspect of terminology is clear. Particularly for digital companies where things like SEO or component-based CMS are used, the immediate effect of NOT using terminology is also clear.

On the cost side, two factors influence terminology ROI like nothing else:

◆ The number of users benefiting from terminology: The benefits of terminology are largely transactional cost savings in small but very frequent transactions. Thus, items like improved research time, avoided misunderstandings, or avoided external costs add up significantly over a large user base and dramatically reduce the total cost per user.

◆ The process cost of the terminology content mainly comes from internal discussions, votings, approvals. By virtualizing these processes in a collaborative web platform and avoiding lengthy meetings with many participants, these costs can be reduced to a minimum.

Remember: The most expensive way to manage terminology is to NOT manage terminology. Because clarifying terminology “happens” anyhow and everywhere, but in a non-documented, ad-hoc, repetitive and redundant way.

About Kaleidoscope

Taking your content global — with Kaleidoscope your product will speak every language! The combination of decades of expertise, our software solutions developed in-house, and select software from market-leading technology partners has been making this a reality since 1996. Coupled with the full-service approach from eurocom, Austria’s largest and most innovative translation agency, Kaleidoscope offers a unique and unrivaled synergy of language and technology. www.kaleidoscope.at

Andy Andersen is currently the localization manager at Tinder, Inc., and formerly served as a program manager at LIS Solutions. Tinder supports 40+ locales across Android, iOS and Web platforms. A language and culture enthusiast, he also devotes time to his blog, Backpacking Diplomacy, and travels whenever possible.

Andy Andersen

Andy Andersen is currently the localization manager at Tinder, Inc., and formerly served as a program manager at LIS Solutions. Tinder supports 40+ locales across Android, iOS and Web platforms. A language and culture enthusiast, he also devotes time to his blog, Backpacking Diplomacy, and travels whenever possible.

A

ccording to Ethnologue, there are just over 7,000 languages spoken around the world. Though this number is not directly reflective of the number of written languages nor the addressable market, it certainly paints a colorful picture of how diverse your user base could be.

In a time of “global from day one,” it’s no surprise that startups and tech-focused companies will often see success outside of their original foothold markets, sometimes with varying degrees of effort. When this starts, it is common to bootstrap and look for cheap solutions or even existing internal employees for language support. Though these choices may initially bear positive results, with time, any growing company will realize that this isn’t a scalable practice. Once the decision has been made to focus on international opportunities, there are many considerations that must be made which can lead to a tailored and more manageable strategy.

Tinder has localized content for a variety of countries, including a video channel for India. Tinder chose “Adulting Can Wait” as one of its video themes for India — a video concept unique to Tinder’s market there.

Tinder has localized content for a variety of countries, including a video channel for India. Tinder chose “Adulting Can Wait” as one of its video themes for India — a video concept unique to Tinder’s market there.

Brian McConnell is the localization program manager for the ridesharing company Lyft. Prior to leading the localization team at Lyft, he held similar roles at Medium, a blogging platform, and Insightly, a small business CRM. He has consulted extensively with startups about localization projects.

Brian McConnell

Brian McConnell

Brian McConnell is the localization program manager for the ridesharing company Lyft. Prior to leading the localization team at Lyft, he held similar roles at Medium, a blogging platform, and Insightly, a small business CRM. He has consulted extensively with startups about localization projects.

L

ocalization is hard, for a variety of reasons, but it can also be a huge growth level for startups. Here, I’ll talk about why localization is key, the importance of preparing for it early on in your company’s development, and how to manage localization across teams and projects.

Why you should localize your product or service

The reasons to localize depend a lot on your product, company goals and the primary market you serve. As a starting point, ask yourself the following questions:

Is your primary product or service offering an information service or app that can be accessed regardless of the user’s location? Do you serve a linguistically diverse population in your primary market? Are you subject to regulatory requirements to support two or more languages? Do your primary competitors offer services in multiple languages?

MediLingua is one of Europe’s few companies specializing in medical translation. We provide all European languages and the major languages of Asia and Africa as well as the usual translation- related services.

Our 450-plus translators have a combined medical and language background.

We work for manufacturers of medical devices, instruments, in-vitro diagnostics and software; pharmaceutical companies; medical publishers; national and international medical organizations; and medical journals.

Call or email Simon Andriesen or visit our website for more information.

Ally Gilboa, CEO of AQ Group-Language Solutions, is a speaker, translator and author. She has over 20 years of experience in the translation industry.

Ally Gilboa

Ally Gilboa

Ally Gilboa, CEO of AQ Group-Language Solutions, is a speaker, translator and author. She has over 20 years of experience in the translation industry.

T

here is a growing demand from startups, developers and entrepreneurs for localization as the main key to increasing their app’s visibility and exposure in global markets, as seen with popular apps such as Waze, Moovit or Houzz.

Localization is how an app can reach new users and potential market segments, but unfortunately, too many apps fail in going global because of bad localization. Only successfully localized apps can get more downloads, automatically lead to an increase in the app’s MAU (monthly active users) and ultimately their revenue.

Plenty of amazing startups are out there, but how do they reach their international audience? There is an unequivocal answer — only through professional localization!

Rebecca Ray is a senior analyst at independent market research firm Common Sense Advisory (CSA Research). For over 15 years, CSA Research has provided research findings based on verified statistical data, proven methodologies and insight from experienced analysts. Ray’s primary research focus at CSA Research is enterprise globalization, multilingual SEO and global product development.

T

here’s a whole lot more to going global — and constantly improving at it — than just the language component. Based on 19 years of observing, analyzing and working with firms at the beginning of their global journeys, here are nine pieces of advice from Common Sense Advisory (CSA Research) that you’re not likely to find elsewhere.

View going global as just another business process. There are known practices for winning and serving international audiences, including how to set up a localization function, so avoid reinventing the wheel. At the end of the day, it’s always about allocating resources to match corporate goals.

Identify and recruit an executive champion. There’s no C-level executive automatically assigned to shepherd globalization, as there is for almost every other business function within the enterprise. Therefore, you will need to find your own champion to remove obstacles and consistently build awareness for local market perspectives at the upper echelons of the company.

Tak Takahashi has been working on internationalization and localization at Teradata San Diego as a globalization technical lead for more than 20 years. He holds a degree in architectural engineering. He is also an architect and a computer engineer certified by the Japanese government.

Tak Takahashi

Tak Takahashi

Tak Takahashi has been working on internationalization and localization at Teradata San Diego as a globalization technical lead for more than 20 years. He holds a degree in architectural engineering. He is also an architect and a computer engineer certified by the Japanese government.

T

he Teradata globalization team is responsible for localizing user interfaces, online help and user documentation for all our products, including client tools, database administrator tools and analytic applications, into ten languages. Some of the lessons we have learned along the way may be useful for startups.

For over ten years, the globalization team has used localization tools we developed in-house. We researched new localization technologies, including translation management system (TMS) and neural machine translation (NMT) options. We also worked with several TMS vendors and localization service providers (LSPs) to see if we could substitute our in-house solution with one of the new technologies. We have yet to find an ideal solution, so we continue to use our in-house localization tools and processes.

Richard Sikes is cofounder and a principal consultant of Localization Flow Technologies. He has been immersed in localization since 1989. His current focus is on translation technologies and industry best practices. He is closely associated with Content Rules as a senior linguistic consultant.

T

he documentation department of an enterprise-scale software company sent a large document to a vendor for translation. The full document included a collection of individual files in DITA format. The company received the translated set of files back, and then built the composite output document.

To their surprise and disappointment, the “translated” document contained numerous untranslated passages. What went wrong? Did the translation company make a mistake? No, the vendor fully translated every submitted file. So, why were passages left untranslated in the published output document, scattered throughout otherwise correctly translated text?

Startups need to consider their globalization strategy earlier than ever

Erik Vogt is RWS Morava’s vice president of partnerships and custom solutions. He’s worked in the language services industry since 1998, serving in a variety of roles. He has also worked with some of the world’s largest and most innovative customers — including a number of startups. He holds an MBA and a BA in psychology, and lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Erik Vogt

Erik Vogt

Erik Vogt is RWS Morava’s vice president of partnerships and custom solutions. He’s worked in the language services industry since 1998, serving in a variety of roles. He has also worked with some of the world’s largest and most innovative customers — including a number of startups. He holds an MBA and a BA in psychology, and lives in Boulder, Colorado.

I

t’s almost redundant to say that the world is changing fast, but it’s not always changing in clear-cut ways. For example, in the world of commerce, while global market capitalization has skyrocketed, international trade in goods has flattened, and cross-border capital flows have declined sharply since 2008. And though real wages have stagnated in many developed economies, what most of us don’t know is that the number of people living in extreme poverty has dropped to its lowest ever, falling by over a quarter billion in just the past ten years alone.

The nature of the international market and the expectations of global consumers have changed dramatically as a result. A few of those changes pertain to expanding business internationally — particularly where startups are concerned.

Ella Pętlicka is program director at Venga Global. She is Polish and holds degrees in Scandinavian studies and translation studies, completing her education in Poland, Denmark and the UK. She has been a freelance translator, project manager, program manager and program director. She has driven the localization programs of some of the most challenging companies in Silicon Valley.

Ella Pętlicka

Ella Pętlicka

Ella Pętlicka is program director at Venga Global. She is Polish and holds degrees in Scandinavian studies and translation studies, completing her education in Poland, Denmark and the UK. She has been a freelance translator, project manager, program manager and program director. She has driven the localization programs of some of the most challenging companies in Silicon Valley.

Y

ou might be running an entire localization team, or you might be a one-man show and the company’s only point of contact for all localization-related operations. Your basic setup is most likely already there — you have a localization kit with a comprehensive set of instructions, guidelines and resources necessary for you to run the shop. You are working with a localization vendor. You might have even selected more than one. Maybe you are already running your operations smoothly, and are looking into optimizing and streamlining some of what you do.

No matter how advanced you are operationally, at some point you will need to start thinking about the business side of your shop. In a startup setting, starting early will give you the unique opportunity to shape the way localization — your department’s job — is perceived by the rest of the company in the many years to come. And since you’re dipping your toes into an industry that people tend to oversimplify and usually have plenty of misconceptions about, you’re facing quite a challenge here.

Mehdi Asadzadeh is a faculty member at Islamic Azad University, Maragheh, Iran, and has many years of teaching experience in different universities in Iran and abroad.

Tayyebeh Ahmadi

Tayyebeh Ahmadi is a sworn translator and is now in charge of the Official Translators Affairs Office, Directorate General, Documents and Official Translators Affairs, Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

S

ince the emergence of translation studies, many have attempted to conceptualize how it fits into other disciplines. Here is an interdisciplinary look at the interaction between translation and trade globalization in light of its significance in Iran’s foreign trade as a developing country.

Translation service providers (TSPs) in emerging economies such as Iran need to reassess, rethink and revise their underlying trade policies. Additionally, the authorities and trade policy-makers of Iran seem not to be paying due attention to translation when designing their global trade strategies. However, strengthening the ties between trade sectors and TSPs is not only a win-win, but also a necessary step to be taken by countries such as Iran that encounter communication barriers in their foreign trade.

The Association of Language Companies (ALC) is a national trade association representing businesses that provide translation, interpretation, localization, language testing and language training services. The association provides valuable information to members and nonmembers with its industry survey and with updates on government issues, industry trends and standards. From online forums to in-person events, ALC brings together the people who lead these companies so that we can all learn from each other. ALC works hard to give companies opportunities to find each other for collaboration, networking, knowledge sharing and mentoring.

Elia is the European not-for-profit association of language service companies with a mission to accelerate our members’ business success. We do this by creating events and initiatives that anticipate and serve our members’ needs in building strong, sustainable companies, thereby strengthening the wider industry. Elia was founded in 2005 and has since established itself as the leading trade association for the language services industry in Europe.

The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) is a global, nonprofit trade association for the language industry. As a membership organization, we support our member companies and the language sector by creating communities, championing standards, sharing knowledge and advancing technology.

For more than four decades, SYSTRAN has been the market leader in language/translation products and solutions, covering all types of platforms from desktop to internet to enterprise servers. To help organizations enhance multilingual communication and increase productivity, SYSTRAN delivers real-time language solutions for internal collaboration, search, ediscovery, content management, online customer support and ecommerce along with automatic speech recognition and optical character recognition. SYSTRAN is the leading choice of global companies, defense and security organizations and language service providers. SYSTRAN is the official translation solutions provider for the S-Translator, a default-embedded app on the Samsung Galaxy S and Note series.Languages: 130+ language combinations

Born from LocWorld’s successful Game Localization Round Table, Game Global gathers the main stakeholders in game globalization (from design to testing) in the same place and time to share their endeavors, successes, practices and research in a collaborative manner. The goal of this two-day event is to help improve the gaming industry through networking, sharing insights and learning. Game Global is steered by an advisory board of high-level professionals from the industry. Check our website for details on upcoming and past conferences.

LocWorld conferences are dedicated to the language and localization industries. Our constituents are the people responsible for communicating across the boundaries of language and culture in the global marketplace. International product and marketing managers participate in LocWorld from all sectors and all geographies to meet language service and technology providers and to network with their peers. Hands-on practitioners come to share their knowledge and experience and to learn from others. See our website for details on upcoming and past conferences.

Global DTP s.r.o., based in the Czech Republic, offers professional multilingual desktop publishing and media engineering solutions to the localization industry. Over the past 15 years, Global DTP has become one of the leading DTP/multimedia companies. We have been delivering high-quality and cost-effective services for at least eight of the top 20 LSPs and many other companies/agencies. Due to our extensive experience in localization and knowledge of the prepress, media and publishing industries, our team of 20 in-house professionals handles more than 1,000 projects every year. Our core services are multilingual desktop publishing, multimedia and eLearning engineering.

Since 2005, Hornet Design Studio has been focusing on delivering quality services in a timely manner. A highly skilled team of professionals is always ready to meet expectations of even the most demanding clients. Looking to achieve that goal, we develop and expand. Therefore we now offer not only DTP but also multimedia, eLearning and voiceover services.Languages: All

The Localization Institute is the leader in educational advancement in the field of localization — the adaptation of products and services for international markets. We organize comprehensive, vendor-neutral conferences (LocWorld and Brand2Global), seminars and round tables where participants gain insights that help their companies better succeed in international business. In addition, The Institute has partnered with top universities and professional associations to develop comprehensive certification programs in localization project management, quality management, internationalization and global digital marketing.

ADAPT Localization Services offers the full range of services that enable clients to be successful in international markets, from translation into all business languages through linguistic and technical localization services, prepress and publication management. Serving both Fortune 500 and small companies, ADAPT has gained a reputation for quality, reliability, technological competence and a commitment to customer service. ADAPT is certified under ISO 17100. Fields of specialization are the medical, life sciences, IT/telecommunications and technology sectors. With offices in Bonn, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Stockholm and a number of certified partner companies, ADAPT is well suited to help clients achieve their goals in any market.Languages: More than 50

E4NET is a total localization solutions provider including translation, DTP, recording, and specialized in Asian localization covering all major Asian and regional tier 3 languages. We have 20+ years of successful localization production experience with major projects for IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, HP, LG Electronics, Panasonic and more. E4NET is now providing patent translation services to the Korea Institute of Patent Information and translating life science projects including clinical protocols and reports. We are continuously developing and applying innovative technologies such as machine translation and associated customer services throughout our production process to maximize production/service efficiency. ISO 9001: 2015, ISO 27001 certified.Languages: 60+

Since 1994, ES has provided full-fledged language services to industry leaders mainly in software localization, translation, DTP, engineering, QA, testing and voiceover areas. The company has a solid customer base and is proud of its successful past assignments which led to long-term collaborations. With 51 permanent staff in the production offices in Turkey and Egypt for Turkish and Arabic languages, ES is a reliable, experienced, value-added regional supplier for direct clients and MLVs worldwide. It is the first Bureau Veritas certified ISO 17100 localization company in Turkey, specializing in IT, automotive, finance, life sciences, gaming, consumer products and more.Languages: Turkish, Arabic

Established in 1986, EuroGreek Translations Limited is Europe’s leading Greek localizer, specializing in medical, technical, financial and legal translations from EN/DE/FR/ES to EL and EL to EN. Our aim is to provide high-quality, turnkey solutions, encompassing a whole range of client needs, from translation to localization, desktop publishing and testing. Our DTP department covers all Latin and Cyrillic alphabet-based languages, in addition to Greek, at very competitive rates. All of EuroGreek’s work is produced in-house by a team of 30 highly qualified specialists and is fully guaranteed for quality and on-time delivery.Languages: Greek to/from English; French, German, Spanish to Greek

Mobico is the new brand name of Saltlux’s technical communication services, and is also the name of the predecessor company to Saltlux, established in 1979 as Korea’s first TC business. What started as a small enterprise concentrating on creating Korean manuals and East Asian language translations evolved into a one-stop service provider for all your needs in the world of business today, including multilingual translation, localization, DTP, TW and MTPE. The relentless pursuit of progress and perfection results in the use of state-of-the-art technology and processes, which in turn lead to superior translation quality with shorter turn-around times and therefore to greater customer satisfaction.Languages: More than 70 languages

Founded in 1983, ORCO celebrates this year its 35th anniversary. Over the years, ORCO has built a reputation for excellence and gained the trust of leading companies, such as Oracle, IBM and Carrier for the localization of their products. Our core business activities include technical, medical, legal, financial, marketing and other translations, software and multimedia localization, as well as localization consulting. We cover most European languages and our client list includes long-term collaborations with international corporations, government institutions, banks, private enterprises, NGOs and the European Union. ORCO is certified according to ISO 17100 & ISO 9001 quality standards.Languages: Greek and European languages

RWS Moravia is a leading globalization solutions provider, enabling companies in the IT, consumer electronics, retail, media and entertainment, and travel and hospitality industries to enter global markets with high-quality multilingual products and services. RWS Moravia’s solutions include localization, testing, content creation, machine translation implementations, technology consulting and global digital marketing services. Our customers include eight of Fortune’s Top 20 Most Admired Companies, and all of the “Fab 5 Tech Stock” companies from 2017. Our global headquarters is in Brno, Czech Republic, and we have local offices in Europe, the United States, Japan, China and Latin America. To learn more, please visit us at www.rws.com/moravia.Languages: over 250

We have been helping some of the world’s most iconic brands to optimize their global commercial potential since 1997. Vistatec is one of the world's most innovative, progressive and successful localization solutions providers. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with offices in Mountain View, California, USA. Think Global.Languages: All

Video localization is complicated. It involves not only translation processes and graphic engineering, but also voiceover and audio/video editing as well. The challenge is how to keep control of the budget while meeting client expectations. VideoLocalize is the answer. Videolocalize.com is a cloud-based online platform designed for video localization. It is the brainchild of Boffin Language, an Asian-language service provider led by cofounder George Zhao. VideoLocalize’s mission is to make video localization faster and more cost-effective.

52Media Professionals is your resource for video production, multimedia engineering, graphic design, eLearning, digital media and translation. We can handle your project from start to finish. Our team has handled thousands of projects for clients all over the world. Our offices in the US and Europe give us maximum flexibility to finish your project on time and within your budget. Please contact us for a proposal on your next project. Put the team at 52Media to work for you today.

The Joint National Committee for Languages and the National Council for Languages and International Studies (JNCL-NCLIS) represent the interests of over 140 member organizations, associations and companies in virtually all aspects of the language enterprise — education PreK-20, research, training, assessment, translation, interpreting and localization — to the US government. The mission of JNCL-NCLIS is to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to learn English and at least one other language.

Joint National Committee for Languages – National Council for Languages and International Studies

Translation Commons is a nonprofit US public charity powered by translators. We are a volunteer- based online community aiming to help our language community thrive and bridge all the sectors within our industry. We facilitate cross-functional collaboration among the diverse sectors and stakeholders within the language industry and instigate transparency, trust and free knowledge. Our mission is to offer free access to tools and all other available resources, to facilitate community-driven projects, to empower linguists and to share educational and language assets.

Originally founded in 1993 in France as Traducteurs sans Frontières by Lori Thicke and Ros Smith-Thomas to link the world's translators to vetted NGOs that focus on health and education, Translators without Borders (TWB) is a US nonprofit organization that aims to close the language gaps that hinder critical humanitarian efforts worldwide. TWB recognizes that the effectiveness of any aid program depends on delivering information in the language of the affected population.Languages: 190 language pairs

Taking your content global — with Kaleidoscope your product will speak every language! The combination of decades of expertise, our software solutions developed in-house, and select software from market-leading technology partners has been making this a reality since 1996. Coupled with the full-service approach from eurocom, Austria's largest and most innovative translation agency, Kaleidoscope offers a unique and unrivaled synergy of language and technology.

Memsource is a leading cloud-based translation management system that enables global companies, translation agencies and translators to collaborate in one secure, online location. Internationally recognized for providing an easy-to-use, yet powerful CAT tool combined with a TMS, Memsource processes two billion words per month from over 200,000 users around the world. Manage your translation projects in real-time in an intelligent platform that accepts over 50 file types and offers REST API, out-of-the-box CMS connectors and powerful workflow automation to save time and money. Join localization professionals from around the world who rely on Memsource to streamline their translation process. To start your free 30-day trial, visit www.memsource.com.Languages: All

With its smart software solutions, Across Systems assists enterprises and translators worldwide in successfully processing their translation projects. Customers from diverse industries use the Across Language Server and the Across Translator Edition to tackle their daily localization challenges. The use of the Across translation management system enables the implementation of transparent translation processes with a high degree of automation and maximum information security. All who are involved in the project can be integrated in the overall process and work on the basis of the same data. This saves time for what matters – the creation of high-quality content in multiple languages.Languages: All

Plunet develops and markets the business and workflow management software Plunet BusinessManager — one of the world’s leading management solutions for the translation and localization industry. Plunet BusinessManager provides a high degree of automation and flexibility for professional language service providers and translation departments. Using a web-based platform, Plunet integrates translation software, financial accounting and quality management systems. Various functions and extensions of Plunet BusinessManager can be adapted to individual needs within a configurable system. Basic functions include quote, order and invoice management, comprehensive financial reports, flexible job and workflow management as well as deadline, document and customer relationship management.

At Smartcat we believe the translation industry should be better for everyone. We connect linguists, companies and agencies to streamline the translation of any content into every language on demand. Our platform helps you build and manage translation teams, and puts your translation process on autopilot from content creation to payments. The unique features of Smartcat are our marketplace, where you can find translators for any language with one click; our CAT tool, translation using an AI-assisted platform, a team management with full control of your team, suppliers and content and payment automation: pay vendors easily across the globe. You can start experiencing the next generation of translation technologies and boost your translation business efficiency from day one.Languages: All

Smartling Translation Cloud is the leading translation management platform and language services provider to localize content across devices and platforms. Smartling’s data-driven approach and visual context capabilities uniquely positions brands for efficiency. Seamlessly connect your CMS, code repository, and marketing automation tools to Smartling’s TMS via pre-built integrations, web proxy, or REST APIs. No matter the content type, Smartling automation tools help you do more with less. Smartling is the platform of choice for B2B and B2C brands, including InterContinental Hotels Group, GoPro, Shopify, Slack, and SurveyMonkey. The company is headquartered in New York, with offices in Dublin and London. For more information, please visit www.smartling.com.

Wordbee is the leading choice for enterprises and language service providers that need to save money and make their company run more efficiently. Wordbee has the most complete feature set of any cloud solution: project management, portal, business analytics, reporting, invoicing and a user-friendly translation editor. Tasks such as project and workflow setup, job assignment, deadline calculation, multiple phase kick-offs and cost management can all be automated in the collaborative translation platform. Also, the Beebox connects CMSs, DMSs or any propriety database source with the TMS of the translation vendor or internal translation team.Languages: All

XTM is a fully featured online CAT tool and translation management system available as a pay-as-you-go SaaS or for installation on your server. Built for collaboration and ease of use, XTM provides a complete, secure and scalable translation solution. Implementation of XTM Cloud is quick and easy, with no installation, hardware costs or maintenance required. Rapidly create new projects from all common file types using the templates provided and allocate your resources to the automated workflow. XTM enables you to share linguistic assets in real time between translators. Discover XTM today. Sign up for a free 30-day trial at www.xtm-intl.com/trial.Languages: All Unicode languages

Founded in 1992, birotranslations specializes in life science, legal, technical, IT and automotive translations into all East European languages (Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian). We have a long-term partnership with the world's top 100 MLVs and many end-clients all around the globe. With our experienced project managers, extensive network of expert linguists and usage of the latest CAT tool technology, your projects will be delivered on time, within budget and with the highest standards of quality. For more information, please contact Mr. Matic Berginc (details below).Languages: Eastern European languages

GlobalWay, a leading localization company in Korea, provides professional localization and globalization services with exceptional quality and also offers a wide range of content and document management services including voiceover, testing and DTP. We have highly qualified in-house linguists who translate and review a variety of content with professional knowledge. Our experienced engineers and project managers can help you to get exactly what you want. GlobalWay and its partners worldwide are ready to support your growing business and localization tasks. Feel free to contact us for more information.Languages: Asian and European

With our headquarters in Korea, our production offices in Vietnam and China, and our sales office in the US, we are in an excellent position to be your Asian language localization partner. For localizing projects from English or German into Asian languages, such as Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, and Burmese, you can trust our professional translation services for IT, software, marketing/transcreation, and technical projects. Since our establishment in 1990, we have been at the forefront of the localization industry as one of the Asia Top Ten and the No.1 LSP in Korea (by CSA). ISO17100 certified since 2014.Languages: More than 54 languages including Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian.

HeterMedia Services Limited is a subsidiary of HM International Holdings Limited, which is a listed company in HKEx (Stock Code: 8416). We are ISO 27001 certified to deliver best-in-class BPO solutions, covering financial and marketing collateral printing projects as well as value-added services, such as language services, desktop publishing, website design, ebook and app production, video and electronic marketing presentation material production. We aim to fulfill the transformation needs of the diversified clientele, which include listed companies and multinational financial institutions such as fund houses and insurance companies. We work around the clock to provide comprehensive one-stop solutions to our clients; you can rest assured that we will handle your projects without hassle.

LinguaLinx is a leading provider of global content and language translation to organizations around the world. The content experts at LinguaLinx help manage and localize messaging to enhance efficiency and provide consistency across all forms of communication. With offices around the world, LinguaLinx provides organizations with localization solutions that fit their needs including: translation and interpretation, marketing communications and website localization, translation memory deployment, multilingual SEO, translation readiness assessment and global content management. Unify your global organization with a customized content intelligence strategy and ensure that your messages resonate across borders. To learn more, visit https://lingualinx.com.Languages: All

MediLingua is one of the few medical translation specialists in Europe. We only do medical. We provide all European languages and the major languages of Asia and Africa, as well as translation-related services to manufacturers of devices, instruments, in vitro diagnostics and software; pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; medical publishers; national and international medical organizations; and other customers in the medical sector. Projects include the translation of documentation for medical devices, surgical instruments, hospital equipment and medical software; medical information for patients, medical students and physicians; scientific articles; press releases; product launches; clinical trial documentation; medical news; and articles from medical journals.Languages: 45, including all EU languages

Outstanding localization requires world-class experience. Rheinschrift gives your business a native voice in the German-speaking world. We offer more than 20 years’ experience providing translations and localizations for software and hardware manufacturers as well as for the sectors of business, technology, legal matters and medicine/medical applications. Our services also range from glossaries, post-editing, project management and desktop publishing services to many other related services. Rely on Rheinschrift to deliver the most competent translations and meet your deadline, whatever it takes.Languages: German to/from major European languages

The Language Group provides a full suite of language solutions. If you have any language related issue, we have a solution for you. We have been ranked one of the fastest growing language companies in the United States and are ranked in the Inc. 500 in 2018. We also have the honor of being the best place to work in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. We are experts at on-site interpreting and phone or video remote interpreting. Our service offerings include translation of medical, legal, manufacturing and government content. We provide transcreation, website localization as well as subtitling and multilingual voiceovers. Languages: 200 including ASL

Professional translation services made easy. Crafted by expert humans, powered by technology, efficiently delivered. We have delivered 1.2 million translations in 150 languages to 134,091 clients in 40 macro-domains since 1999, powering the globalization strategy of the most demanding clients. We work hard to make translation services more effective, by enhancing our production processes with great technologies and talented people. A perfect example is T-Rank™, the system that instantly matches your content with the most qualified translator for the job. We offer a wide range of linguistic services that cover all your future needs: Google Ads translation, software localization, subtitling, and APIs to integrate human translation. We open up language to everyone.Languages: 150 languages and 40 areas of expertise.

As a multilingual communications agency, TripleInk has provided industrial and consumer products companies with precise translation and multilingual production services for audiovisual, online and print media since 1991. Our experience in adapting technical documentation and marketing communication materials covers a wide range of industries, including biomedical and health care; building and construction; financial services; food and agriculture; high-tech and manufacturing; and hospitality and leisure, as well as government and nonprofit organizations. Using a total quality management process and state-of-the-art software and equipment, our team of foreign language professionals delivers the highest quality translations in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner.Languages: All major commercial languages

As a leading international translation services provider, 24translate has been connecting small and medium-sized companies with the rest of the world for two decades. When expanding into new markets, global leaders such as tesa, Swisscom and FARO regularly rely on our technology and professional expertise. Striving to provide maximum support for the international growth strategies of our clients, we have developed a unique translation automation platform: 24|contenthub. 24|contenthub not only facilitates the integration of all the systems and service providers employed, but also enables companies to map their complete translation workflows in one place — global communication has never been easier.

Wratislavia Translation House Sp. z o.o., established in 2005, is an ISO 17100-certified company with its headquarters in Wrocław. We provide customized translation and localization services in large-scale projects for clients worldwide. Our areas of expertise include IT and new technologies, the automotive industry and many more. We are experts in SAP translation — SAP systems, documentation, training materials. Since 2010 we have been a certified SAP Language Service Partner. Our services are provided by an in-house team of 15 translation professionals and numerous freelance translators specialized in various industries. Our experienced project managers, strict quality procedures applied and modern CAT tools allow us to deliver high-quality services in compliance with confidentiality policies.Languages: Polish to/from major European languages

memoQ is a technology provider that has been delivering premium solutions to the translation industry since 2004. For almost 15 years, memoQ has been dedicated to delivering innovation through diverse developments that today help hundreds of thousands of freelance translators, translation companies and enterprises worldwide. Having simplicity and more effective translation processes in mind, memoQ combines ease of use, collaboration, interoperability and leveraging in one single tool. Discover a new world with memoQ, and let our team help optimize your translation processes and make your business more successful.Languages: All

SDL is the global innovator in language translation technology, translation services and content management. Over the past 25 years we’ve helped companies deliver transformative business results by enabling powerful, nuanced digital experiences with customers around the world. SDL is the leading provider of translation software to the translation industry and SDL Trados Studio is recognized globally as the preferred computer-assisted translation tool of government, commercial enterprises, language service providers and freelance translators.Languages: All

The gap between localization and development has been an ongoing pernicious complaint in our industry since before I jumped in some 20 years ago. That said, there have been remarkable improvements in development and localization practices.

At least in my corner of the world, we collectively spend less time convincing people of the basic need to internationalize and localize than years ago, though executive buy-in remains an issue at some companies even when they are global operations. Companies and personnel are quicker to understand the technical challenges and they want sustainable solutions. That said, there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

Emphasis on agile and continuous development brings software users new functionality quickly, with controlled risk, faster execution, feedback and adaptation. Delighting customers with new features has become simply what is expected. Similarly, localization delivers customer delight for those outside “home” markets. Localization is performed to raise the appeal and competitiveness of software in any particular market. It behooves our industry to look for ways for localization to keep up with the pace of software development.